I think we are in full agreement on all your points. Just a lot of blame to go around, even Rudy. The sooner the whole team gets on board and stops pointing the fingers at each other instead of themselves the longer UND FOOTBALL will languish in mediocrity. We rise as a team and fall as a team. Everything else is just excuses.

Yes, I agree. But my overriding point is more than just a specific anecdotal play. Do we run the risk of letting others off the hook by fixating so much on one glaring need for improvement? I want to get better all around, not just in one aspect of the game.

What number is Rudy wearing this year? Does it get to the point where the "Rudy" thing becomes as much of an excuse as saying "we were injury riddled last year." I mean lots of other teams have inept OCs, too, and still manage to win.Their players simply execute. A lot of bad OCs out there are being made to look really good from players who execute at a high level. Players gotta execute, too. I don't consider Messingham at SU to be this awesome all-world OC but he just won his team a national championship. Me thinks it had more to do with their players executing. Replace Messingham with Rudy on last year's UND squad and I think that our results don't change one iota.
Don't get me wrong Rudy has a lot to improve upon and a lot to prove this year, but it can get slippery if we pin our excuses on one guy. Lots of blame and credit to go around.
Signed,
Mrs. R

UND Today is a cool publication to subscribe too. Yes, it's a PR publication that is mostly positive about what is going on at UND. But all that said, the information is true and accurate -- and it usually has stuff before it hits the Herald. In fact, many of the more positive Herald articles about UND originated in UND Today.
http://blogs.und.edu/und-today/
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http://blogs.und.edu/und-today/subscribe/

Ha ha! Yes, if it were totally up to me, I wouldn't be going south that time of year. Wife taught summer school until the end of June and kids are tied up with swimming lessons, camps and Summer Performing Arts until mid July... so August it is, I guess. We are doing St. Louis, Atlanta, Orlando, Daytona Beach, Nashville, Chicago and home again. Been saving up for over a year. #Roadtripfromhell. LOL!

Sorry guys. I will be road tripping to Orlando and back, July 27-Aug. 10. At least no one will blame my reports on being oppo research for other teams, like last year. I think other FCS programs have better things to worry about than injury reports from some armchair blogger in Grand Forks.
All that said, maybe I will try to catch some late camp sessions. Hoping there isn't a full contingent of stationary bikers on the sidelines by then.

I'm actually not critical of the women's game in that way. I certainly don't have the exact same expectations for style of play when I go to MBB compared to WBB. They are equally pleasing to me in their own ways, especially if UND is winning. Where I depart from WIH is when I see the sense of entitlement that seems to exude people associated with the former UND program that it was somehow different and that it should have been handled differently than other cut programs: wrestling, baseball, M&W S&D, and the privatizing of MG (to include the recent broaching of a possible endowment plan).
Their (many WIH supporters) vitriol is nauseating even for someone like me who attended almost all of their homes games and cheered them on win or lose.
"hell hath no fury ..."